A Lady's Armor
by wildknees
Summary: Genderswap AU. Courtesy is a lady's armor, though some find a better fit with steel.


_A/N: This is a cut scene from a longer genderswap AU in which Lady Rhenly is sent to Highgarden to marry Willas Tyrell, but of course she's more taken with her future goodsister Lorys._

* * *

><p>A red rose was waiting on her windowsill when she returned to her chambers. Rhenly smiled as she picked it up to smell the bloom. It had to have been cut just hours before, rich in the sweet floral scent that seemed to be in the very air of Highgarden. As attentive as the servants here were, Rhenly knew that the rose could only be from one person.<p>

The door to her bedchamber was already slightly ajar as Rhenly pushed it open to step inside. Late afternoon sun poured in the windows, casting the room into rich shades of gold. The half-closed bedcurtains seemed to glow in the sunlight and a silhouette of the figure within was cast against them. She was laid on her front with her legs stretched out behind her, delicate feet sticking out between the parting in the bedcurtains with one foot bobbing absently.

Smiling, Rhenly approached the bed. Lorys sensed her before she even sat down, gazing up from where she was stretched out on her front. "_Rhenly,_" she murmured in greeting.

"_Lorys,_" Rhenly returned, feeling something fond and familiar flutter in her chest at the upwards curve of Lorys' lips. It was sometimes hard to believe just how beautiful Lorys was. Rhenly reached out to touch her, revelling in the shape and warmth in the dip of her back. With narrow hips and long, slim limbs, Lorys' body could look as flat as a boy's while in her armor, though the silk gown cut in the airy Highgarden style showed that it was not quite so.

Unable to resist, Rhenly leaned in to drop a kiss atop Lorys' head. "Back from the training yard so soon?" she asked into the curls.

Lorys rolled her eyes. "Only to appease father," she grumbled, "He's in one of his moods again. Says I should be _more of a lady,_ like my soon-to-be goodsister." She let out a huff of annoyance that ruffled the rouge curl that fell across her forehead. "Grandmother will sort him out soon enough."

"I don't doubt that," Rhenly agreed, laughing. Whatever the lord of Highgarden seemed to believe, everyone knew who was really in charge, and she would not allow her granddaughter to be denied the right to bruise the prides of anyone willing to challenge her in the training yard.

A grin came to Lorys' lips as she pushed herself up on her elbows to bring her face close to Rhenly's. "And besides, father is lucky I don't tell him how unladylike you really are."

"_Unladylike?_" Rhenly laughed in mock offense. "What have I ever done that's unladylike?"

Lorys' gaze flicked back over her shoulder to where Rhenly's hand had wandered lower down her back and was now resting on her rump.

"Perhaps there's that," Rhenly agreed, unable to resist a fond squeeze that made Lorys laugh and squirm.

"_And,_" Lorys continued, still grinning wickedly, "that thing with your mouth." She turned, reaching to the bed behind her. "Is this where you learned it?"

For the first time Rhenly noticed the book laid open on the bed. She had to laugh when she recognized the garishly painted illustrations.

"It inspired the idea, certainly," she said. She'd almost forgotten she brought this book to Highgarden but she pulled it closer to herself now, stretching out at Lorys' side to turn the pages.

There were no words to it, only a series of intricately detailed illustrations that showed the story of a princess being seduced by her handmaiden. Even the most innocent pages were enough to turn a septon blind. Presumably Lorys had been looking through the book before Rhenly returned and had it open to a particular illustration of the act Lorys was referring to. Rhenly could even imagine it looked like two of them together, the princess with chestnut curls that fanned out over the bed as she arched in ecstasy, and the handmaiden crouched between her spread legs with hair as black and shiny as dragonglass.

"Where did you find a thing like this?" Lorys asked, fascinated. She shifted closer to Rhenly's side to watch the pages turn.

"From the captain of the ship that took me from Dragonstone to King's Landing. The first time, anyway." Rhenly smiled as she recalled. She'd been ten-and-five then, and had managed to gain passage on a trading ship that would carry her away from dreary Dragonstone to King's Landing to join the court there. The plan had failed miserably and Stannis had been waiting at the docks of Blackwater Bay to send her straight back, on a ship far more suited to a highborn lady of course, but Rhenly had not forgotten the thrill of adventure in the voyage on the trading ship, nor the strange crew who steered it.

Lorys raised an eyebrow, wearing an expression rather like the one Stannis had worn when he'd discovered Rhenly had willingly gone aboard a ship full lowborn trading men without even an escort. "The captain gave you a book like _this?_"

"We made an exchange," Rhenly explained, "He gave me the book, and I gave him one of my finest gowns." She sighed at the memory of it. "I really should have another one like that made. It was of the prettiest pink satin and had pearls sewn all up the sleeves, and a sash to match."

Again Lorys rolled her eyes at the ostentatious fashions of the Crownlands that were so at odds with the simple, elegant styles of the Reach. "He must have been able to sell it for a good price, with all those rocks hanging off it."

Rhenly just had to grin. "He didn't want it to sell."

"Then what did he want a gown for?" Lorys asked.

"Let's just say that he was having difficulty finding other gowns to fit someone of his height."

"He wanted to _wear_ it?"

The look of surprise look on Lorys' face was so sweet that Rhenly couldn't help but laugh. She leaned in to press a kiss to the corner of Lorys' gaping mouth. "Is that any different than you wearing man's armor?" she asked.

Lorys did not even need to think about it before a proud smile replaced the look of disbelief.

"I wear woman's armor," she said.

Rhenly laughed happily. "Yes, you do," she agreed, leaning in to kiss Lorys' forehead. Lorys tilted her face upwards and Rhenly granted her a better kiss, wrapping her arms around Lorys so they were laid together side by side. She'd held Lorys the same way this morning but even those few hours felt too long to have gone without the gentle press of Lorys against her.

It was only this close that Rhenly could see that Lorys' eyes were brown flecked with gold rather than the honey color they appeared at a distance. Again she found herself hardly able to believe just how beautiful Lorys was, especially with the radiant smile that seemed to be only for Rhenly, and Rhenly just knew that this alone was better than anything in the pages of the book that lay forgotten beside them.


End file.
